New York Daily Times, August 4, 1855, Page 1, an
article reporting on activities at Castle Garden, newly opened as an immigrant
depot by the New York Board of Emigration Commisisoners. The writer commends
Castle Garden for barring "runners" and others who would prey upon and
exploit new arrivals. But the writer also suggests the potential for corruption
within Castle Garden, and names several points that would soon become
notorious for fleecing poor immigrants of their savings--the weighing
and transfer of baggage, sales of transportation inland, vendors selling
snacks, etc. (The etchings shown here are not original to the Daily
Times item, but have been included to illustrate the article.)

CASTLE GARDEN

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New Emigrants are Treated on Landing

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Honored is that house which for generation after generation has served
as an ornament, and in its old age commences a new corner
of practical
usefulness. And our venerable Castle Garden is very highly considered
that, after half a century of service as a military rallying place
and a fashionable resort for the peddlers of amusement, now when its
walls are cracked and crumbling and all its early glory deserted,
it is vouchsafed
the privilege of granting a home to all humanity, as well as to the
City, of which it is the gateway. In the old time, New York received
LaFayette
in Castle Garden with its most profuse hospitality; to-day hundreds
of the countrymen of LaFayette come over from vine-clad France,
and
in Castle Garden receive the first welcome to America. So, after all,
the change is not so very great. Instead of one ovation a year to
some
distinguished foreigner, henceforth there will be a perpetual ovation
to thousands of foreigners and, whereas only straggling couples have
heretofore
promenaded the balcony and pledged their eternal troth, henceforth
it is utterly given up to young and old, lads and lasses, old men
and crusty maids
to wander at will throughout it, talking about good old times and plotting
for future revenue on Western prairies, or arranging for the service
of
the clergyman, and the quiet cottage and the babies that are to be
born.

The new order of things is fairly inaugurated. We went down yesterday
to see how it works.

Three ships loaded with emigrants arrived up from Quarantine, and
it was a busy time all round. Compose yourself, reader, while we tell
about
it:

A
high board fence, through which the eye can not peer, nor over which
the
most curious boy can climb—for it is thirteen feet high—shuts in
the proper inmates and shuts out intruders; among the cuts are
all emigrant runners. On Thursday several of these hopeful gentlemen
dressed
themselves in emigrants clothes and tried to gain admittance
under the pretense of having been landed in company with those just
arrived.
But the dodge did not work. Others pleaded earnestly to get in to
see a father or a brother, a sister or other relative, who was among
the
passengers.
But they were too well known to palm themselves off on that pretense.

Yesterdays few did not scruple to manifest their dislike by open
demonstrations of hostility. Besides continually hooting at the employees
of the Commission, as they passed in and out, they attacked one or
two of them with stones. They went at Commissioner Garrigur so fiercely
that
he called the Police to his aid. Commissioner Kennedy drew a revolver
upon them, which had the effect of cooling them somewhat. It is feared,
however, the end is not yet. The Commissioners, and those under them,
will go armed for the present, and will be ready for any emergency.
These
runners have sucked the life-blood of emigrants for so long that they
think they have a right to it. And now, when upon a sudden their
occupations gone, they feel as melancholy and dissatisfied
with the world as do the liquor dealers where a Maine Law is honestly
observed.

A policeman waved the leeches aside, and we presented our face at the
raised opening of a narrow door. A word assured the porter, and we entered,
registering our names where some score had preceded us, as is the rule
for all visitors to do. Now passing the heavy door of old Castle Clinton—that
was its name until 1823—let us push straight through to the opposite
side and out upon the wharf. Here is a busy time. A heavily-loaded emigrant
ship has just anchored in the stream, and the barge Pilgrim,
towed by a steamer, is now just fastened to the pier with all her company
and their luggage. The ship is the Mary, of Havre, and her
passengers are of the better class,—stout, clean looking Hollanders,
hopeful and hearty peasants from France—men who have a trade in their
hands, skill in their brawny arms, and money in their pockets, and women
who promise to be helps meet for industrious and intelligent men. As they
leave the barge, they are examined with reference to their health, and
to discover if any of them should be conveyed to the Hospital. They then
enter the Garden and present themselves immediately at the desk in the
centre of the room. There the names are registered, and the names and
number of their family, the ship they come in, their point of destination,
the route they prefer taking to reach it, the amount of money that they
bring, etc. The following is the number of emigrants arrived these last
three days, and the amount of money that they brought with them,

By the Albert

240 passengers

$15,000

By the Bridgwater

450 passengers

$1,753

By the Lelia

12 families

$238

By the Mary

200 passengers

$14,434

If any are ignorant of the routes West an officer points out the peculiarities
of each, shows the nearest cut to distant places, and informs them of
the prices of tickets. Maps of the States and of the routes are hung about
the room, and if the officer does his duty, no intelligent man need decide
until he knows the general features of the land that lies between the
promised land and Castle Garden. This information is what almost every
emigrant needs, and the officer charged with the duty should be one of
the best of men. The moment that he recommends one route above another
he urges to the selection of this one or the other, he has violated a
rule of the establishment and is worthy to be kicked out.

Next, the emigrant is shown to the baths. We join the crowd of males
that flock in to the right. Here we find a large room, in the centre
of
which hang several coarse roller towels, and along the side is a deep
trough of running Croton. This is the wash-room. Soap abounds—we
hope no motives of niggardly economy will ever make it lose plenty.
Behind a screen that reaches across the room is the basin for bathing.
A dozen
or two can be accommodated in it at the same time. Indeed, every facility
is granted the new comer, whatever may be his condition on entering
it,
to leave Castle Garden personally clean. The female bath and wash-room
were the counterpart of the male, but as it was in use at the time,
we
consented to take the statement of our conductor and forgo a personal
investigation.

Back now to the Weighmaster on the wharf each head of a family must go,
point out his luggage, and receive a certificate of its aggregate weight.

Now,
if the emigrant desires to stop in the City, he may leave his luggage,
to be called for when wanted, and issuing out at the narrow front gate,
saunter up Broadway, and squat, or tent, or buy and build as suits his
own sweet will,—he is already a prospective American citizen and has
the freedom of the City or the land. But few by this arrival elect to
stop here—for they are wise enough to push on where they will be welcomed—to
the West. All such are directed to the Clerk in an office at the front
part of the building, where they exhibit their tickets, if they purchased
them in the old country, or purchase new ones if unsupplied.

If the party elects to stay a day in the City, seeing its sights and
getting a sense of its sounds, he is at liberty to do so, but there are
no beds in the Castle, and he must take his chance with the hospitable
or craven, the honest or the sharky of the metropolis, for the night.
Most prefer to go on at once. And such need not wait long. The barge is
soon reloaded with the baggage, and the steamer again fastening and they
are borne in the several depots they are to go by without cost, and deposited
just in time to take the next train onward. So does the honored old Castle
enable the Commissioners of Emigration at least to fulfill their intention
of dispatching the business of the Board promptly, protecting the City
from the annoyance of an immense horde of strangers utterly ignorant of
the name of a street, and entirely at the mercy of heartless runners and
landlords. We cannot judge, of course, how soon corruption may squeeze
in the narrow entrance to the Castle, and villainous tyranny begin its
abuses, but it will make the eyes of the lover of his kind water with
gratitude to see the improvement already effected in behalf of the poor
emigrant by the removal into Castle Garden.

The large hall of the Garden is a capital place for young Europe to enjoy
itself in, during the brief bouts of his tarry in our City, on his route
westward. A tall fountain feeds a noble basin of water near the spot where
the old stage was, and cools the air even at the noon of the heated term.
The children were rollicking about it--sailing their paper boats, and
full of unrestrained glee. The women eat in groups, talking in some of
those crooked old country languages that make us wonder how any talking
can be done there until the people come of age,—some knitting, some cutting
and eating slices of rye German bread and cheese, some patching and fixing
up the wardrobes of their family. They would not have cut a very fine
figure in the hall room of the Yacht Club last night, but in view of their
healthy forms and faces, we would like to see them matched in the dairy,
the kitchen or the field with so many of our pale New York beauties. The
prevalent head dress resembled such cushions as the ladies construct of
drugget and stuff with hay, set upon the crown of the head, fastened by
a broad belt over the head and under the chin. They wore abundant woolen
skirts, and some were of no meaner breadth about the hips than our Newport
queens when girded with a couple of the corded—but for a
different reason. It was a strapping dame, we saw, who having eaten no
more than the mere nubbin of a long German loaf, proceeded to pocket the
big balance. She lifted up her frock, and into a sack sowed fast to her
petticoat—that more than half a city bushel might be stowed in—dropped
it as one might drop her thimble. As the pocket is only entered from within
we—who never bet—will wager our inkstand that no pickpocket ever lightens
her of the load.

The whole castle is theirs to ramble in, and none hinder any, wherever
they choose to stop in it. The best seats are free, and numbers that
at Jenny Linds concerts sold at fabulous prices, were open to
the poorest.

In a corner, a lad sells bread and cheese, and milk at what seems a high
price, but is really cheap when it is remembered that a franc is always
taken there for a shilling.

Sorry are we to add that there is a shadow of danger that the Commissioners
may not be able to retain possession of the Garden for its present excellent
use. But there is a little could—in the Councilmens Chamber.

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Castle Garden in the Councilmens Committee

On Friday afternoon the Committee on Public Health of the Board of
Councilmen—(present, Messrs. Ranney, Slevin, and Smith)—met in the
City Hall, to consider
the report from the Board of Alderman as to the use of Castle Garden
for an Emigrant Depot, and to hear parties in relation thereto. Messrs.
Couenhoven
and Cooper were absent.

Mr. A.J. Perry appeared on behalf of the remonstrants. He quoted largely
from the communication from the Comptroller, in reply to a resolution
relative to leaving Castle Garden to the Commissioners of Emigration,
presented to the Board of Alderman, May 31, 1855. After reciting the history
of the various covenants to which Castle Garden had been subjected, as
fully and explicitly set forth in that document.